Hi

How do you pay a salesman? Do you pay like 25% of what they sell each month or standard salery, is there any documentation you have to make them sign etc?

Many thanks for your help in advance. As always it is much appreciated

I'd recommend a salary + commission if you're looking to lure in a quality sales rep

If you want a reliable salesman, you're going to have to pay them a salary. Usually a commission on top is nice too.

Don't rely too heavily on commission though, You don't want someone too pushy, like a car salesman. If someone is pushing me to buy something, I just won't.

A good sales person will prefers to work on a high commission....a poor sales person would rather have a salary.

You might have to go through a few, but hire what you need...set the monthly goal, if the person does not meet the goal...next...

You need to pay them MINIMUM wage + commissions, NOT a 25% or more/less % - but just fixed amount per sales - like if they signup you customer for $200/year - he get paid $75 one time - this way he/she will be very well motivated to move their behind and looking for more new customers.

Well, this is how we do it ;)

It really depends on how long you want to keep them... a salary will build a good relation with the salesman, as they'll feel a need to stay with you... high commisions will mean they are more freelance and will have no loyalties, but they may work harder.

The best thing you can do to keep a sales person is to pay them good money.

The best way to make sure you get what you pay for is to tie it to sales made.

So a high commission is a win win. The better the salesperson is the more he/she will make and the more business you will gain.

If you have a great salesperson...they are already thinking they do not want to leave as they are making great money.

Even a well known real estate person had a comment about this on a show. He fixed up a large building and was looking for agents to rent, lease and sell the condods, aparments. He had one agent tell him that he would only do it if he was on salary....the owner laughed and found an agent that worked on solely commission for two reasons...1. the sale agent had to sell to make money 2. this is a win win situation as both parties make more money at the same time.

A good sales person will prefers to work on a high commission....a poor sales person would rather have a salary.

You might have to go through a few, but hire what you need...set the monthly goal, if the person does not meet the goal...next...

I agree completely. I quality sales person doesnt need a salary as they know that will limit their earning potential and they do not doubt their skill level to complete sales. Commissioned based sales people work so much harder IMHO than salary based ones as they HAVE to complete sales to make money. Also if they do not give you a quality sale, they should be charged back. Aka, if the client cancels right away, the sales person loses their commission.

I agree too to the commission model. A good sales rep will make more anyway with high level commissions than a single salary. Paying a sales rep a stable salary each month (without proven results) will result in laziness from his part most of time. If he has to prove himself and lets say after X amount of sales he made for you, you are willing to pay him a stable salary in addition to his sales (as a reward), he will work harder to get his pay.

However, I do not agree to remove a sale from a sales rep (unless very specific like fraud) as it is usually not the sales rep fault if we lose a sale. It is usually a lack of support, or quality services that will lead a client to leave. Wouldnt be fair to blame the sales rep for that. And sometimes, customers are just dumb and change their mind 3 days after they paid and ask their money back (thanks god its not a majority or we would all be out of business).

Salary+commission is good but might burn a hole. Make it more like salary + commission if sales person exceeds x amount of sales etc. This way he strives to work harder. Might not work too. There is simply no guarantee.

Any salesperson worth their salt is going to want to work on strictly commissioned sales. Good ones do not want to be held back by the mediocre sales people that survive on salaries.

The only way to motivate person to work hard is to give them Minimum wage + nice commissions. But give them 30-90 days "probation" period - so, they can proove if you want to keep them or not.

Otherwise, here is many freeloaders who happy with minimum wage, you need to put them on "stress" a little bit ;)

I have to chime back in here.

I find it funny that many people are stating commission only.

This may work in many other industries, but it is much more difficult these days in the web hosting industry.

For example, Digital City Host, I hate to bring you up but I checked out your site and saw your packages.

They range from $0.89/month-$1.99/month. How do you make ANYTHING commission wise as a sales rep? Even if you gave 6 months worth of that top package, that's only $12/sale. How many sales is the sales person going to have to make to make a decent living? How many sales are you making as an entire company per day (rhetorical, don't have to answer)? As you can see where I'm getting at... your sales rep wont be making too much money.

As you can see... a truly good sales person wouldn't even look twice at you offering him that, when he can go do sales in any other industry and blow that amount out of the water.

Commission only will only work if you're paying him a very large number of months worth of commission, which I don't see many companies doing here on WHT.

Sure, this would work for higher end hosting, dedicated servers, colo, etc. but $1-5/month hosting on strictly commission? How many sales does your company as a whole make in a day? So what's your sales rep going to make for that day? $25-$50/day? Please, he can make more at Mcdonalds.

I'm not meaning to direct this at anyone or begin to know what you pay your sales reps, I am simply throwing sample numbers out there to dispute the fact that the majority of hosts I see offering sales based positions here on WHT wont even begin to attract any form of quality based reps.

I would hire staff to handle your sales based upon salary with added incentives or commission. A few examples that might help.

1) You have a sales tech that answers live chat and answers a few questions regarding sales. Normal salary.

2) You have a sales tech that answers the live chat and answers a few questions regarding sales and offers additional services/products to the customer and gets that sales as well. Normal salary plus commission.

Another way about it is if your sales teams meets a projected goal by the end of the quarter then they received an incentive check for X amount.

Just another way to look at things.